I'd been doing a lot of reading and watching a lot of YouTube video’s trying to decide what broadhead to use on spring turkeys. I've killed several with my bow, but I've had a few get away too. They're tough and shot placement on them is everything. I've learned (for me) the best body shot is to hit them at the top of the drumsticks; broadside, quartering way or straight away.

Having said that, it seems those Guillotine-type broadheads offer the best percentage of harvest be it compound device or stickbow. We’ve talked about them here before and I decided to finally give them a whirl this spring.

Our season opened of Monday, April 17. I couldn’t go due to a business trip but I was able to go on Tuesday, the 18th. I had a big tom in just after daylight; he had two jakes following him around. He came toward the decoys and gave me a good shot opportunity at about 15 yards. I blew it. The Guillotine passed harmlessly to the left of his neck. The darn thing just stood there while I fumbled around trying to get another arrow. By the time I was ready, he just walked off.

Got up on Wednesday, the 19th to pouring rain. I’m not too crazy about turkey hunting anyway, so I just rolled over and slept a couple more hours. Yeah, I know, a fair weather hunter.

Thursday the 20th was a beautiful morning and turkeys were gobbling all around. I had a tom came in at 2 o'clock of the blind. He jumped up on a blow down and drummed, strutted and gobbled his head off for 30 minutes as he continued skirting the blind about 30 yards out until he got to about 10 o'clock. Then, two gobbled to my right and the tom let down and walked off. Those two ended up being four jakes coming straight in to the decoys. I tightened up on the string and the darn things just turned and walked off before getting to my window. Every time I called, they just gobbled and kept going. Gee Whiz!

All the research and anecdotal evidence I’ve done and seen, indicates that you either miss’m or kill’m with these Guillotine heads--with one exception. A few guys reported that if you hit one dead center, the darn thing would just bounce off the bird. The center of the head is a round thingy that holds the blades. Apparently, if you center punch them, it’s like hitting them with a big blunt. I was about to find out how true that is.

Wouldn’t you know on Monday, the 24th, I had a big tom come in at 6:30 and he goes straight to my jake decoy. He raises his head and I let her fly. Guess what happens. Yep… hit him dead center, about two inches below his waddle (right where I looked) and the darn thing knocks the turkey back and bounces off. Then, the gobbler kind of puffs up, as if he just got the crap kicked out of him by the jake. He turns, walks off and starts gobbling about 50 yards out. Gee Whiz! Of course I couldn’t call him back. Guess he didn’t want any more of that. Oh well… I planning to keep after’m.

"Archery is really very simple. You just have to do the exact same thing on every shot"Bill Leslie, July 22, 2017

Haven't been out very much but....there were some turkeys in the field across the street, ran into garage, grabbed camo, a jake decoy and scattergun and ran into the pines next to my house and 20 minutes later had turkey fletchings...."almost" to easy but Ive hunted the things enough to know you take those when you can get it!!!!BTW....havent seen or heard a bird since LOL

The last three mornings I've had a tom come out in the same place following a hen. The darn thing just looks at my decoys and walks off. I moved my blind this morning. I'm going to try to ambush the rascal.

"Archery is really very simple. You just have to do the exact same thing on every shot"Bill Leslie, July 22, 2017

I've not had much luck save for one jake that caught me drawing on him and ran off. A fellow posted this video over on the Leatherwall. He's using the Muzzy Bullhead which is similar to the Guillotine that I'm using. Looks like dead-centered one too. :^) He does kill one at the end of the video.